This is one of the most depressing Australia Days I can remember. We are still recovering from the horror of the Bondi massacre and the disgraceful jostling for political advantage that followed it. Meanwhile, the news is that opposition is hardening on changing the date to one less offensive to First Nations people. The actual shifts aren’t that great in statistical terms, but there’s no doubt that this shift, along with the rise of One Nation reflects something real.
In part what we are seeing is the global collapse of the “centre-right” and the ideology I’ve called “hard neoliberalism”, a combination of privatisation, pro-rich tax cuts and attacks on workers rights. For decades, hard neoliberals relied on the votes of the 20-30 per cent of the population who are consistently racist, but delivered little more than gestures. Now, with the failure of neoliberalism evident to all, the boot is on the foot. The racist right now dictates terms to the remaining neoliberals. We see this most obviously with Trump, but it’s happening in much of Europe as well. Germany is one of the few places where the mainstream right has (so far) held the line against doing deals with parties like AfD.
In Australia, the former coalition made their deal with the devil when they decided to preference One Nation ahead of Labor. Now they are paying the price. The Nationals will either be wiped out by One Nation or forced to merge with them. Either way, and assuming Labor wins again, the opposition in the next parliament will be dominated by overt racists.
Coming to Australia Day specifically, it’s unsurprising that the right is hardening its position. The bigger problem, as usual, is the failure of leadership from Labor and, more specifically Anthony Albanese. Having bungled the Voice referendum, he has walked away from any serious efforts at reconciliation with First Nations and from any attempt to redefine Australia’s position in the radically changed world brought about by Trump.
I can’t see any good outcomes here, at least in the short term. Until Albanese and Marles are gone, we will have no leadership from this government. That’s not going to happen soon, even if Albanese’s popularity continues to decline. And while Chalmers seems more aware of what is going on, there’s no guarantee he would be radically different. Plibersek could once have been an alternative but she has been fatally compromised by her stint as minister for environmental destruction. The same is true of Wong, leaving aside the problem that she is a senator.
The only consolation, looking at the world scene, is that things could be a lot worse. This is still a great country, even if our political class does not reflect the fact.